While I think Cook is probably right that the iPad will continue to dominate tablets, and even that it continues to make the best ones, his overenthusiastic criticism of seven-inch tablets struck me as surprisingly defensive. Saying Apple didn't set out to build a "small, cheap tablet," he called the competitors "compromised" products. "We would never make a seven-inch tablet," he sniffed.

Why not? Because they're too small, he said. The iPad mini is almost an inch larger, which means a 30% larger screen and 50% larger viewing area. I'll grant that that is noticeable, and appealing.

But c'mon. These are all tablets you can hold in one hand, and acting as if the iPad mini is something utterly unique--"in a whole different league," as he put it--comes off more than a bit desperate. Apple is clearly playing catch-up here, and trying to position the iPad mini as nothing like the Nexus 7 or Kindle Fire only serves to make us realize that Apple actually does feel threatened by these devices that beat it to what has turned out to be a real market.

Here's the thing: I have little doubt that if cost were not an issue and I tried an iPad mini, a Nexus 7, and a Kindle Fire side by side, I'd choose the iPad mini. The 30% larger screen and 50+% viewing area would like look a whole lot better than the other two. But besides the fact that most people can't in fact compare them in one place, there are two other problems with Cook's logic.

For one, cost is an issue. Not only is the $329 base model a full $130 more than a Nexus 7, the high-end iPad mini, even with only WiFi and no cellular connection, weighs in at a very pricey $529. Neither is quite an impulse or easy gift purchase like a sub-$200 device probably is for many people.

Cook's second mistake, at least in my opinion, is claiming that seven-inch tablets can never measure up to consumer expectations. Why not? Apple itself makes iPhones and iPod Touches, which people use for many of the same activities as tablets, that are even smaller. Why are a four-inch iPhone screen and a 7.85-inch iPad mini screen fine and a seven-inch Nexus 7 screen terrible? It doesn't make sense.

What's more, all you have to do is try a seven-inch tablet like the Nexus 7, even with its sometimes mis-sized apps, or lack of some apps at all, and you can see they still work just fine. More than fine--I like the Nexus 7 quite a bit, actually, because the screen is pretty darn good and big enough even for watching videos. Indeed, Jonathan Hurd, a director at consultant Altman Vilandrie & Co., says that these smaller tablets are opening up the places where people can watch video, including outside the home. Some 30% of tablet owners are Netflix subscribers, he says.

OK, so it's not as great as an iPad mini. So what? I think a lot of people will be happy to save $130 to spend on, oh, say, an iPod Nano or a couple of iPod Shuffles. Or a whole bunch of Android apps.

Cook also took the opportunity to fire a seemingly gratuitous shot at Microsoft's new tablet, which has an attachable keyboard so it can work kind of like a PC. Though he hasn't tried it yet, he called it "compromised" and "confusing," comparing it to a car that can drive and float but can't do both well. I haven't tried it either, so he may very well be right. But in criticizing a product he hadn't laid his hands on, he again sounded more defensive than you might expect if he were as confident as he claims he is in the iPad's superiority and appeal to consumers.

Now, Apple likely will do very well with the iPad mini. But Cook's overt criticisms of rivals signal that he knows Apple can't afford not to do very well. Cook himself repeatedly noted that he thinks tablets will be supplanting personal computers for many people in coming years. Today, perhaps, we caught a glimpse of how desperately Apple feels it needs not just to lead but to dominate this next era of computing.